Now, there is, rightly, anger on the Iberian peninsula because one of Eriksen’s colleagues on the extreme right of the political spectrum made similar remarks.

However, contrary to Eriksen, his co-thinker is an archbishop in the Roman Catholic Church.

Translated from Dutch daily De Pers of today:

Archbishop: ‘Raping women is OK’

A Spanish archbishop believes that one is allowed to rape women who have had an abortion. “Hitler’s and Stalin’s crimes are not as bad as abortion,” said Francisco Javier Martínez Fernández in his 2009 Christmas speech.

The famous Portuguese columnist Manuel António Pin [sic; Pina] quotes that old speech now because the new Spanish Prime Minister announces that he will reverse the progressive abortion laws of his predecessor. “At times like this even an atheist may wish that a god might exist to condemn these people,” writes Pin in the newspaper Jornal de Noticias.

Fernández Martínez, Archbishop of Granada, said that “a woman who has an abortion gives a man an absolute license – without restriction – to abuse her body because she has committed a sin in a way as if she had a right to sin.”

Cynically, one may admit that Fernández Martínez has made a little progress compared to the extreme Right in the Spanish Catholic church during the 1940s. Then, that clerical far Right did not consider Hitler a criminal at all, not even, as now, a lesser criminal than a woman who had an abortion. Quite the contrary, they considered Hitler a hero of anti-communism, and helped Spanish dictator Franco send the Spanish fascist “Blue Division” to help Hitler kill over 20 million Soviet citizens.

Meanwhile, in the USA: Mitt Romney vetoed bill that would require hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape victims as governor: here.

Fifteen Things Old Boys Like Rick Santorum Don’t Want You to Know About Your Body and Your Contraception. Valerie Tarico, Away Point: “When a serious presidential candidate can approve outlawing contraception, you know there are powerful forces aligned against you having control over your fertility”: here.